As U.S. immigration debate rages, 'Dreamers' await their fate

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As U.S. President Donald Trump and congressional leaders discuss the fate of some 700,000 immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, the young people whose lives hang in the balance fret about their future.

Reuters spoke to five people covered by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. Many older members of the group, nicknamed “Dreamers,” balance college classes and jobs amid a looming March 5 deadline set by Trump to repeal the program unless Congress preserves it.

“I knew DACA was going to be rescinded, or at least I thought it was, the day he won the election,” said Javier Hernandez Kistte, 27, referring to Trump’s anti-immigration stance during the 2016 presidential campaign. Kistte arrived in the country with his family from Mexico City when he was 8 years old.

Trump wants tighter restrictions on immigration that he deems necessary to improve national security and protect the jobs of working class Americans. Supporters of the DACA program say eliminating it would punish people who were too young to know the consequences of their family’s decision to move to the U.S. and remove productive people from the economy.

Last week, senior White House officials outlined a plan that would offer a path to citizenship to about 2 million young illegal immigrants. The proposal also called for a border wall and curbs on some legal immigration programs, measures some Democrats have called unacceptable.

Some DACA beneficiaries said they did not realize where their families were headed when they set off for the United States.

“My parents told me we were coming to Disneyland,” said Karla Estrada, 26. “We did not go to Disneyland.”